Incognito
by Blazing.Steele
Summary: 5 runaways serving as a mercenary/assassins for hire group escape 6 months ago from HYDRA and are on the run, when their leader, is left wounded. With nowhere to turn to, the team find themselves the unwilling guests of Xavier's Home for Gifted Youngsters when the X-Men's newest member finds them. Pairings: OC/OC, Kurtty, others
1. Prologue: Arsenal

**A/N: Uh, hi guys! *waves*. Okay, so this is the first chapter of my first fic on this new account (don't be fooled by the creation date – I've actually been on this site since 2009)**

**Yes, this is an OC story, but for those of you still wondering, **

**1. It is an OC/OC romance story, NOT an OC/Canon romance**

**2. The X-Men will feature in the story.**

**DISCLAIMER: I'm only writing this once, so pay attention**

_Xmen Evolution © Kids WB _

_The X-men characters (and others too) © MARVEL _

_OCS – _

_Tamara © _

_Quinn © __cutekitty5597_

_AJ © __Dino724_

_Clarity © melissav-hehe_

_Robert © PolkaDottedElephants_

_Nina © The Lady Cloudy _

_Aaron © __Maras LI_

(LINE)

_**Incognito**_

_**Chapter 1: Arsenal **_

_**Warning: A couple of swearwords in this chapter. **_

(line)

A HYDRA foot solider scurried forward, a manila folder under one arm. He knew the penalties for interrupting a meeting off the higher-ups, but he hoped they would forgive the transgression when they saw they information he held.

Passing down another corridor – they all seemed the same in the surprisingly massive base, he stopped when he reached the double doors at the end. Unlike the vast majority of the base, these doors were wooden, not the metal automatic doors preferred.

He had to wonder if that was Madam HYDRA's preference. Not that he would ever ask her – the foot soldiers rarely ever saw the woman who ran their organisation, unless they had performed abysmally at a task they had been assigned.

And even then, in those occasions, the first time they saw her was often the last as well.

Thinking quickly, and hoping that this would not be one of the aforementioned times, he knocked on the door – three raps in quick succession – before biting the bullet and opening them slightly.

"Madam HYDRA?"

A loud whistling was heard and the agent instinctively ducked as a knife sailed over his head and embedded itself in the wooden door.

Right where his head was previously.

He felt himself get pulled off the ground roughly by the neck and shoved against the wall, staring into narrowed grass green eyes.

"Any particular reason you felt the need to barge into this meeting you certainly weren't invited to, pipsqueak?" A rough, British voice asked, belonging to none other than Arsenal, one of the best assassins-for-hire HYDRA had to offer.

Said pipsqueak had a hard time answering, considering he couldn't breathe with a hand around his neck.

"I—uh…needed… to see…. Madam…HY-DRA…" he finally gasped out, eyes almost rolling to the back of his head.

"Drop him, Arsenal," the woman commanded, her Eastern European accent showing through, clearly annoyed with the man. "And pick up the folder."

Grudgingly, the assassin did as told and the solider fell to the ground. He snatched the folder up before the man could even blink and the underling stop shakily. No wonder none of his teammates had wished to be messenger.

"You may go," Madam HYDRA dismissed him with a flick of her hand, while reading the newly handed over documents. "Although if you interrupt another meeting like that without my expressed permission, I will not hesitate to have you killed for insubordination. Understood."

Massaging his throat, the young man nodded emphatically before exiting the room.

Madam HYDRA smiled to herself.

"What has you in such good mood, Vip—" Gauntlet froze at the look on his superior's face before quickly backtracking his statement, "I, mean… Madam HYDRA?"

Rolling her eyes, the green haired woman passed the folder to him. "Look for yourself."

Said folder was passed to every operative at the table, reaching Arsenal last.

The assassin scowled as he looked at the documents, photos of five teenagers and a young woman resting on the table. With each photo was a basic description of the person, including their abilities.

Tamara Johnson, Quinn Fletcher, Annabelle Jacobs, Clarity Lawrence, Robert Tuson and Melody Parker. The former assassins for hire that HYDRA had spent years of research and training on.

The same six people who had escaped HYDRA six months ago and had been missing ever since.

"Great history lesson boss." The sarcasm was practically dripping from Arsenal's tone, but Madam HYDRA just looked at him. It was a testament to how well he could do his job that the assassin hadn't been killed for his blatant disrespect. Though even he knew that the "indifference" to this wouldn't go on forever, the man was a risk taker.

"Now," he continued, "tell me again why I should care about this bitch and her pack of brats?"

"Because they've been sited, you moron!" It took a lot to try this woman's patience, but the assassin was surely succeeding in pissing her off. "Which you'd know if you did what every other member at this table did – read the damn report! Now get put there and deal with the problem before I replace you – permanently."

"Alright," Arsenal conceded with a quick nod – he had no doubt that his boss could - and would – replace him if he continued to aggravate her. "What do you want me to do?"

"Find Project: ALPHA. Deal with the other as you see fit. But I want the girl returned to me alive – a lot of money went into creating her, and I will not have another of our projects lost."

She turned to scowl at Gauntlet, who wisely, didn't speak.

"Are we clear?"

Pulling the knife he'd lodged in the door out, the dark haired man smirked.

"Crystal."

**A/N: Okay peeps, that's the first chapter. Be warned, my first chapter (which I've replaced so many times it's not funny…) will be deleted as it holds no discernable purpose anymore.**

**Next chapter will be up pretty soon after this one. After that, expect weekly updates – I've got my first year of uni to plan for/complete, work to do on other stories (both on here and in my book and a whole lot of other crap to do.**


	2. Beginning the Tale

_**A/N: Uh, this chapter actually involves the characters. Woo hoo!**_

_**Note before reading: Some of your characters have been given minor appearance changes – this was because I picked the characters based on their personalities and their powers – not what they looked like. I ended up with a team where three characters looked remarkably similar – which considering they're not siblings, isn't a good thing.**_

_**P.S The "Paige" mentioned briefly isn't a character who belongs to me, nor is she an OC - anyone wanna guess on who she is**_

_**DISCLAIMER: Refer first chapter for disclaimer on who owns who.**_

_Koda © (wasn't mentioned in chap 1)_

_**(line)**_

_**Incognito**_

_**Chapter 2: Beginning the Tale**_

_**Warning: AJ's a bit of a pottymouth **_

_**(line)**_

Tamara Johnson was many things.

Paranoid was one them.

Overprotective, another.

A sad little killjoy who could the suck the life out of the room faster than a man, who'd spent 50 years in the desert, could eat a whole lamb roast - That particular little title had been bestowed in her by Quinn after she'd insisted they head straight to the train station, instead of spending an hour at the nearby park.

Judging by the fact the Melody and Clarity (nicknamed Rita to the group) were now using the swings, Robert was building a sandcastle, and AJ was perched on top of the slide, (effectively baring any other person from using it) and trying to meditate, it was pretty clear she'd lost that little argument.

It didn't stop her from spending every moment since they'd arrived at the abandoned playground – it was 10pm and there was no one around – sitting on the nearby grass and almost grinding her teeth together in agitation.

Standing up, Tamara decided quickly that if they could have the park, she got to have a cigarette. Shakily lighting it and drawing and her first puff, she let out a shuddering breath before promptly taking another draw.

"Those things are bad for you, you know."

Rolling her eyes at her pseudo-brother, Tamara withdrew the cigarette long enough to mutter, "So I've heard."

Coming into step beside her, Quinn Fletcher grinned at her. "You should quit. Why'll we're at it, quit pacing too. You look like your wife has just gone into labour and you've had to wait outside."

Tamara rolled her eyes at him again and flicked the cigarette on the floor, crushing it under one of her boots. She turned to face the younger man. "What do you want, Quinn?"

"For you to smile, for one."

Tamara scowled. "We're frittering away any hour at some stupid park when there are assassins on our tail who want to **kill** us. Can you imagine why I'm not really up to smiling?" She ended the last sentence with an almost growl in her voice.

Quinn sighed and pushed his shaggy brown hair back off his face. "I get it, okay? We don't know where we are, we've got bad guys after us and we're running from something that could potentially kill us all. You think I don't know that? You think they don't know that?"

He waved a hand in the others direction, causing AJ to open an eye at them and the other three to look worried. Despite the fact neither Tamara nor Quinn were raising their voice, it was pretty clear they were in the middle of an argument.

"The thing you need to realise, Mara," Quinn continued, not noticing the four new spectators watching them, "is that they're **kids**! We're **all** kids! Sometimes we just wanna be **normal**!"

"I know," The older girl replied, her voice quavering a little bit. "You don't think I feel the same way? That I wouldn't give **anything**, anything at all for us to be a normal family?!"

"It certainly doesn't feel that way sometimes. Feels like you care more about HYDRA then you do about us!"

A second after the words were uttered, Quinn knew he'd issued a low blow.

He'd opened his mouth to apologise, when he was interrupted.

"You're right."

If anyone had been watching, they would've born witness to five people blinking in almost synchronised harmony.

Tamara turned to look at them all, as the others had been inching closer to their feuding older members for a while.

"Come on, guys. When was the last time we had an hour to do anything but run?"

No one answered her, for they all knew it to be true. Tamara was great at leading them into battle, or figuring out how to get from point A to point B without getting spotted by the bad guys. What she wasn't so great with, was doing something spontaneous – which meant a lot of the past six months had been spent playing duck and cover, without any breaks.

It was a wonder she'd be mutinied against when it came to the park visit.

"Yeah, but you have a point," Clarity Lawrence pointed out. "We're not sitting here for laughs, are we? We have dangerous people after us."

"And I really don't want to be caught unawares. Ii personally prefer being alive, over going back to those dickheads." Annabelle Jacobs (AJ) added.

Tamara was back on Mum mode, as she clapped her hands over Melody's ears, just as Clarity did the same to Robert.

"AJ! Ix-nay on the wearing-say!"

"Please," the fifteen year old girl said, rolling her eyes, "She heard worse from the dickheads we had for guards, remember?"

"Stop using that word!"

Quinn stepped in, glad that Tamara had returned to normal, instead of the emotional wreck she'd been a minute ago.

Well, as normal as Tamara could get.

"Hey, Mara." Said girl looked up and released Melody, who ran back to the swings, clearly interested in them. "How about you start on that 'being nice' thing and get us some drinks? There's got to be a convenience store open."

The young woman raised a dark eyebrow. "I don't recall promising to be nicer…" She rolled her eyes at the look she was getting from Quinn and sighed to herself. "Fine, but this means we're train hoping tomorrow, alright?"

"Yes, sir. I agree with that statement completely, sir!" Quinn mocked-saluted and Tamara half-heartedly swiped at him.

"I'll be back in fifteen minutes, okay? Then we're leaving." She turned on heel and started walking in the direction of a convenience store she saw open.

Quinn grinned before calling after her, "Don't worry, Mum! I'll take care of the kids!"

Tamara simply flipped him off, while AJ and Rita each buried an elbow into his side simply for being called 'kids'.

(line)

"Yo, Aaron!" Dakota Shade, a teenage girl with short, choppy black hair, lines of dark fur running down both arms and hunter green eyes called to the young Japanese-English man in the living room.

Said young man was currently reading a large book – she thought it said something like 'Dan Brown' on the cover, but she really couldn't care – and ignoring her.

Thinking he couldn't hear her, she raised her voice. "Hello! Earth to Aaron – I'm talking to you!"

When he did nothing more than sigh and turn the page, Kota went with the more direct approach – pick up the nearest thing and throw it at him.

Her weapon turned out to be a stress ball which bounced off his head and fell to the ground, before turning to face her and glaring. "What?"

Throwing on her best, 'I'm innocent' smile, which evidently showed off her pointed canines, the wolf girl held up an empty carton of milk. "We need milk. Go get some."

Deciding that it really wasn't worth finishing the book when Kota was liable to throw something at him again if he went back to reading, he closed said book with a snap. "Why do I have to go out and get some? You clearly finished the carton."

"Yeah, well, unlike you – it's pretty obvious to tell I'm not normal. I'd ask Paige but she's asleep." Kota shrugged, "Besides, if you 'port there and 'port back, you'll only take five minutes at most.

"You know that's not how my powers work. If that's why you want me to go, you'd be better off asking Kurt."

Kota sighed. "Can't. He's still moping about how Kitty came back today with a sparkler on her finger." She snorted at this, "Not that Kitty'd notice. The girl's seriously oblivious. Why in the hell did she agree to marry a human, when she knows all her friends are mutants, by the way?"

Aaron rolled his eyes at her antics. Kota didn't care about the gossip that went through the house, she was just confused about the actions of some of their friends/teammates. It was part of the pack mentality, or so he'd heard.

He went on the assumption that because wolves didn't lie, she couldn't fathom why people did. Especially to themselves.

Aaron pinched the bridge of his nose, closing his dark brown eyes in the process. He knew Kota – she'd arrived at the Institute 3 months after he had, 4 years ago. He also knew that because of her mutation, she liked to back people into a wall (both metaphorically and physically) and would argue for days just to get someone to yield to her.

"How far away is this damn store?"

"Uh…" Kota frowned, clearly trying to remember. "Twenty minutes I think..."

"Twenty – twenty minutes! And I'm supposed to walk there?!"

Kota grinned. "Not unless you can hotwire a car. Which, by the way, I'd like to see you attempt."

Gritting his teeth and getting out of the chair, the tall twenty-one year muttered something like, "fine, but you owe me," before stalking out of the house.

_**AN: Sorry to cut things short – but the original idea I had for this chapter ran waaaaaayyy too long and ended up sounding disjointed. **_

_**Next chapter will be up sooner, due to the fact I already have a third of it already written. **_

_**(Also, I had a surprise assignment for university which has eaten up all my time.)**_

_**Uh,, I hope you like (and I hope I got the characterizations of the OC's down.. or at least partially recognizable.)**_

_**P.S There will be a poll going up on my account soon, that involves this story - make sure you vote! :D**_


	3. A Sudden Change

**A/N: Chapter 3 – where there is actually something other than set-up! Woo hoo!**

**Sorry to S. Ruru and The Lady Cloudy, because I incorrectly named Melody, Nina, in the first chapter A/N and somehow managed to forget Kota's creator's name in the second chapter A/N.**

_**Sorry for the wait but there were a few family emergencies that took precedence over updating – my step grandfather died two Friday's ago, and, as you can imagine, that was some seriously stressful time.**_

**Disclaimer: On first chapter. **

_**(line)**_

_**Incognito**_

_**Chapter 3: A Sudden Change**_

_**Warnings: Uh, violence… I think.**_

_**(line)**_

**27 May 2008.***

Tamara had fifteen years of training and experience drilled into her by HYDRA.

As such, she knew a person had been following her the entire walk there and that they had waited patiently as she bought the item her team wanted - using the last money they had - before walking out of the store.

She subtly opened the bottle of Coke she had bought and lifted it to her lips. She knew HYDRA, and she knew few of their assassins ever bothered to read the group's profiles. For the man (or woman) waiting for her, it would simply look like she was having a drink.

She was proven correct (about the lack of knowledge) when as soon as she had reached a more secluded part of town; the slight whistle of a bullet fired of a silencer equipped gun was heard.

Had she not been shot at before, Tamara would have no idea what was going on. As it was, she clearly had, so she did the only thing she knew how to do in these situations – she transformed.

It only took a simple thought and she was a puddle, of the liquid she had recently drank, on the floor.

It was a weird experience, one she was almost entirely used to. As a puddle she could hear the other person as they jumped off whatever they had been standing on, but could not see them, or move quickly.

It was only through years of training (which bordered on brutal in some cases) that she could detect where he was based on the sounds he was making. It was like a case of human echolocation, only in reverse.

The moment she heard his footstep near her 'head', so to speak, she acted. Re-forming quickly, she swept her attacker's feet out from under him before flipping out of the way.

"Rule number one," she announced proudly, "Never fall into a trap."

Grimacing at her sticky, wet hair (the less focused on the transformation she was, the more likely she was going to come out of it dripping with whatever liquid she'd consumed), Tamara barely had a moment to think, 'Gross,' before her attacker was on her again.

Firing again in quick succession, she barely had time to find cover (the disappearing attack wouldn't work while he was aware of it.

"Rule number two, love – never underestimate an opponent."

The voice was familiar –a rarity amongst the dozens of opponents they'd had. Most were drones of HYDRA, barely distinguishable amongst the hooded outfits. This man… she remembered this man.

She just didn't know **how.**

A loud bang broke through her thoughts as the assassin hit the car with another bullet.

'_Crap. Think later. Fight now.'_

She slipped into liquid mode again, and slid under the car she'd taken refuse behind. She was pretty sure it's owners were going to be pissed when they found it riddled with bullets.

"Where you hiding, girl?" The unknown man muttered, ducking to look under the car.

He was met by a boot to the face as she reformed quickly again. This time, however he grabbed her leg and yanked her from underneath the car. Grinning as he brought her up to face level by grabbing her under the arms as she thrashed.

"Cute trick, but I don't think it'll save you this time!" he said, lip curling in contempt.

Scowling, she continued to wriggle until she had a sudden thought.

"Yeah, I think it will," she said, smirking before disappearing again as the sticky liquid sloshed over his hands, causing him to let out an irritated growl.

She reformed again at his feet, flat on her ass and slammed a fist into his left knee, which let out a satisfying crunch. Her right hand explode from the pain but she ignored it – focusing solely on making sure this creep went nowhere near her family.

He took the opportunity to kick her in the stomach with his uninjured leg and she flew backwards.

"Getting too old for this crap," Tamara muttered sarcastically, rubbing her stomach as pain began radiating from the area. She could almost **feel** the bruise forming as she spoke. That would be hard to hide from the guys.

She went to get up, but a foot was planted on her left calf, using just enough pressure to be painful.

Her attacker removed his hood and she could help but remark, "Arsenal, eh? HYDRA still got you cleaning up their messes again?" She laughed, though hollow because she **knew** there would be a painful (for her at least) reaction to that question.

The Englishman smiled and increased pressure slightly, causing a pained whimper to slip past her lips.

"Tell me the rest of your brats are, and you can live to see tomorrow ALPHA."

"Stay the **hell** away from my family!" Tamara hissed back, spitting at him.

More pressure. Another yelp escaped from unmoving lips.

Arsenal didn't look fazed by her reaction. In fact, his eyes lit up. "Don't say I didn't warn you," he said before aiming the gun (and its last bullet) at her heart.

The gun fired but missed its mark, as a sludgy Coke puddle crawled behind him and Tamara reformed.

It was risky. She knew she didn't have the strength (or the resources) to return to liquid form again. The rest of her drink had spilled as she'd dropped it when transforming originally.

Judging from the confused look on Arsenal's face just before she'd done, he hadn't expected her to do that.

"You see," she purred into his ear, snagging the gun from slackened hands, "you all rush in without reading the file and understanding your target. No wonder why Madam HYDRA demoted you to errand boy."

The move was lightning fast. She hadn't expected it – one moment, taunting the opponent, and the next, a six inch Bowie knife had penetrated her front.

The red hot searing pain ran up her spine and she whimpered despite herself. Arsenal took the time to twist the handle a little deeper and the whimper became a shriek of pain.

"You see," her adversary whispered as the waves of roaring agony overcame her, "I read your file. I know what you can do. And up til now, this entire fight was a setup, to get you to overexert yourself."

The words barely registered, but the second bought of pain, as knife was drawn out and was slammed into her back, thrusting upwards into her rib cage. That sure as **hell** registered. She let out an undisguised scream of agony.

"Rule number three: The battle isn't over until someone admits defeat. Goodbye, Project: ALPHA."

He slid the knife out and disappeared in a haze of smoke as Tamara fell to the ground. There was no way to move – every bit of slight movement hurt like hell. She couldn't talk, couldn't think and couldn't breathe – she was going to die.

And there wasn't a person alive who could save her.

_**(line)**_

A shriek pierces the night air.

Aaron would never had noticed it, had it not been around 10.30pm and the street been deserted. He was purposely dawdling, so that Kota would spend more time waiting for her precious milk than necessary,

He liked to think of it as a small victory, and a rather large irritation to her, to make up for the **extreme **inconvenience of being forced to run errands this late at night.

He stopped for a second; not daring to make a sound, but no further cries were heard, so he continued.

The bullet ridden car was the next thing to catch his attention. An oddity in itself because Bayville had anti-mutant groups (not **gangs**) running around. And those groups rarely ever carried any form of gun.

Especially ones that came equipped with some sort of silence, if the lack of any police, or neighbours to comment on the strangeness, were any indication.

Crossing it off as strange - possibly dangerous if these groups were now **arming **themselves - Aaron resolved to mention it to the Professor tomorrow.

Until he heard the faint whimper from the shrouded alleyway to his right.

He took a step towards the alley, frowning slightly. He may have had a reputation of being 'cold and unfeeling' by some of the younger lodgers at the Institute, but he wasn't completely heartless. Clearly, there was a person in there who may, or may not be injured.

He wasn't going to just ignore them.

"Hello?"

A hand grips the pavement, covered in blood, and slowly a figure drags themselves into view.

She's a mess. Black hair (strangely wet, Aaron notes) is disarray, wide amber eyes looking right at him. She's lying down, one hand pressed to her abdomen as she lies on her side. The arm propping her up gives way and she collapses onto the pavement.

It seems an effort for her to speak, but she manages to force two words past her lips. "He..lp me…"

He's never been anywhere near the infirmary at the Institute. He could care less about the medical profession as a whole, to tell the truth; at least as a career path. However, he's not an idiot of any sort, and Aaron knows the girl in front of him is in danger of bleeding out.

The phone is out and the number dialed before his brain finishes processing the thought.

Kota is a little snappy when she answers. "What do you want? Got my milk yet?"

He ignores her. "Get the Professor here, now. All the other teachers too. And Josh," he adds as an afterthought.

Kota's still pissed about the milk thing, and is not feeling cooperative. "Why should I? Is there a sale on milk I haven't been informed of?"

It's time like these that he both likes and loathes his quick temper. "Damn it, Kota! There's a girl here about to die. She needs medical attention, **now**!"

The wolf girl swore loudly into the phone and then dropped it, if the sudden thud was any indication.

The phone is picked up less than a second later by another familiar voice.

"What happened?" Jean Grey is calm when she speaks, but Aaron can hear the tension and worry in her voice.

"I think the anti-us groups have picked up their act a little. Girl, little younger than me by the looks, must've been attacked by them. She's hurt really bad. Looks like she's a mutant, and homeless too" He crouches over her, moving her top up to inspect her abdomen.

He barely hears the older woman's promise of, "Be there as soon as we can," before she hangs up.

Aaron would like to say it wasn't because of this mystery girl's stomach, but it was. There's a vicious stab wound running almost parallel to her hip bone, ending close to her ribs and bleeding profusely. It matches nicely (in an extremely way) with the bruise blooming on her ribs and most of her abdomen.

The strange part is that there are literally hundreds of scars on her skin from what look like similar attacks. Some faded to almost white against her cappuccino skin, others still pink and raw.

There's a slight pressure on his arm, and he turns to the girl, who is feebly trying to bat his away from her.

"No…." she whispers it, a small whimper escaping her mouth.

He narrows his eyes at her. "I'm trying to help you," he tells her, slightly annoyed. "I can't do that if I can't see the wound."

Looking around for some sort of bandage, he scowls when he realises the only clean thing he can use is his scarf – the girl's clothes are covered in filth.

Sighing and muttering mixed curses under his breath, he goes to unravel it, only to be stopped by her hand again.

Her cold, clammy hand.

Eyes widen in momentary surprise.

'_Shit.'_

Gripping her hand, he takes her pulse and swears, this time loudly, when he can't find anything. He leans over her and checks the side of her neck. This time the pulse registers, but he doesn't need to start counting to know it's going fast.

Too fast.

She has to have at least another one. There's no way she could lose this much blood from one wound.

Maybe calling the other X-Men was a moot point. Because it sure looked like this mystery girl was to bleed out in seconds.

And not even a mutant healer would save her.

_**(line)**_

**A/N: My laptop is fried – where all the characters profiles are stored. So if I butchered your character ****SilentMonnlight****, uh sorry. (I delete my PM's – its my little OCD thing. If you wanna send your characters profile again I would be so happy.**

**P.S Kota's not intentionally trying to stop Tamara receiving medical attention – she's pissed off cos her milk's taken longer than she'd thought to arrive. Remember, at the beginning, Aaron was intentionally being slow to annoy her. **

**Please note I know next to nothing about first aid/wounds. I have looked up most of this stuff – but you can't really type "How to Inflict the most damage on someone with a knife" without raising some suspicion, especially when you're stuck using the family computer because yours is broken. I did some reading and hazarded a guess on the damage. The first –aid Aaron administers is taken from wikihow. **


End file.
